Allahudein Paleker was at Mecca, just done with his pilgrimage to Haj in 2017, when he found out that he had been elevated to the ICC panel of umpires. He saw it as a sign and a blessing. He umpired in the ODIs, stood in India’s tour of South Africa in 2018, and now has made his debut as a Test umpire, 15 years after first taking up the profession.
Incidentally, his umpiring partner was Marias Erasmus, his mentor who had started him on the umpiring path a decade and a half ago.
Aleem Dar has a special message for South Africa’s Test umpire #57, @Allahudien #BePartOfIt pic.twitter.com/BZRKJfExJw
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 3, 2022
It was an impressive start but tough days will come soon, no doubt. The sternest Test of his career so far must surely be that fateful day in Cape Town in March 2018 when he was the fourth umpire in the Sandpaper gate game. Together with the on-field umpires, Paleker charged Australia’s Cameron Bancroft, who had shoved sandpaper in his trousers, under Article 2.2.9.
The Indian connection is apt though, as he traces his origins to Ratnagiri in Maharashtra. His father too is an umpire though he could never make it to the higher level, and still plies his trade behind the stumps in his 70’s.
A few years back, in 2015, Paleker was in India, as part of umpire-exchange programme between two boards, and umpired in Ranji Trophy games in Mumbai and Chennai. He made the local papers then, talking about how in 2000, he had tried to enter the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as a visitor but was denied entry. And now he was umpiring there. Circle of life, and all that.
It’s been an interesting life, alright. A first-class player for South African franchise Titans till 2006, and a club player from Cape Town who even played in leagues in England. When he was 20, he went to play in the Sussex leagues but found the life as a Muslim difficult.
‘There was no halaal food available readily, the closest masjid was an hour away, and it wasn’t easy,” Paleker once told Accidentalmuslim.com. He was more careful next year and made the decision that most Asian-origin people do, and especially of Muslim faith. He chose Birmingham, where 21% of population is Muslim. With Halal food and lots of masjids around, he was in a far happier space and had a couple of successful years in the leagues.
One day Peter Kirsten, former South African batsman, called when he was in Birmingham and offered him a chance to play for Titans. Paleker didn’t have to think much.
He played in the post-apartheid era, though it did present its own set of issues. Like this one time, when he just started playing for Titans who had assured him that he would be put up with an Indian family. It was a friendly family but a Hindu family who had a bar at home. “I found a friend and moved in with them.” He has also been a teacher in the past, teaching maths in an Islamic school.
Even as his playing career was winding down, advice from Erasmus would turn out to be sagely.
“He told me, if you are interested in umpiring, take it up as soon as your playing career ends,” Paleker says in that interview. “Don’t waste time by trying other things. It was the best advice I ever got.”
So, even when two years remained in his playing contract, he started taking umpiring courses. And when his contract ended, happily at his home ground New Lands in his hometown Cape Town, he took the umpiring plunge immediately in 2007.
His umpiring inspiration has come from his father and uncle, both umpires. “What (mannerisms) Billy Bowden would do, my uncle used to do such stuff years before that!” Uncle was also strict in his feedback. “He would say, you didn’t move quickly, you were too slow in getting into position, very critical,” Paleker laughs.
Being a first-class player helped. “To get first-class games to umpire, it takes 7 to 10 years. You have to start with U-13, progress to U-15 etc. And you also have to be in the top three ranking at every level, else, you have to go through the same level again.
“But since I was a first-class player, I fortunately started at the university league, which is the third highest level.” It still took him 15 years to make a Test debut, and in the stand were his proud family.
Incidentally his partner and mentor Erasmus too had made his Test debut as an umpire against India, in a Test in Chittagong in Bangladesh in 2013. A day before the game, he had looked a bit nervous and when one asked him during small talk, Erasmus had said, “Butterflies are good. I mean you should get them in your tummy, otherwise what’s the point? It is a big match for me,” he had said with a laugh. Eight years later, he is the senior pro, having already umpired in the 50-over World Cup final in 2019 and the recently-held T20 World Cup final, and now helping out a fellow Cape Towninan to ease in.
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